In his first day in office, Marcellus Mayor John P. Curtin warned village residents that the village police department faced significant cuts and possible dissolution if the county’s plan to drastically reduce shared sales tax revenue became a reality. During the village’s annual meeting last night, Monday April 5, Curtin and the board approved the appointments of all village police officers. Less than an hour later, when the board reconvened for the scheduled tentative budget hearing, Curtin expressed serious concerns for the fate of the village police force. Curtin said that unless village residents collectively voiced a willingness to endure a significant increase in village taxes — a 3.5 percent increase, to cover the $300,000 cut in sales tax revenue the village stands to lose — the police department would face reductions and possible dissolution altogether. “It sounds like a scare tactic, and I mean it as a scare tactic,” Curtin said. He added that Chief of Police Robert Wicks had already cut the police budget by 10 percent for the 2010-11 budget. For the full story, see next week’s Eagle Observer.